Parenting Guru: Things I love about volunteering in the classroom

In another life, I probably would have been an elementary school teacher. I missed the boat to teacher school, so when my twin boys reached school age, I eagerly signed up to work in the classroom. At our school, volunteering is not mandated and I have no plans to use it as a pathway to becoming president of the home and school club. I truly enjoy teaching children which is why I'm in the classroom every day.

Here are some of the more humorous reasons why I love volunteering to work in the classroom.

I witness fashion trends. Did you know that the Silly Bandz fad is nearly over? My kids were never into Silly Bandz so it wasn't until I stepped into the classroom to volunteer that I witnessed the fashion insanity that was the Silly Bandz craze. But lately, there's been just a handful of kids in class sporting Silly Bandz. If I hadn't been working in the classroom, Silly Bandz would have come and gone and I wouldn't have even noticed.

I've been Cheese Touched. My boys and I hadn't read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and we hadn't seen the films that soon followed so I didn't know what it meant to be Cheese Touched until it happened to me one day during journal time. Two little girls at my table were snickering quietly, their eyes darting my way.Then they reached out with crossed fingers, touched my arm and whispered, "Cheese touch!" The whole table stifled their laughter and I was left to wonder what it all meant. I tried to Cheese Touch the girls back but they held up their crossed fingers and said, "Nope, we had our fingers crossed." For the uninitiated, it's like a modern day version of cooties. You get the Cheese Touch, you stink like cheese.

I feel like a celebrity. The school yard is the only place I've ever felt like a celebrity. As I walk through the quad area, the kids wave at me and shout, "Mrs. B! Mrs. B!" or "Hi, M's Mom!" Sometimes they just ambush me from behind with a hug.

The Tooth Fairy is alive and well. Everywhere I turn, I see Jack o' lantern smiles. First graders lose a lot of teeth! And when those teeth grow back in, the kids look different, older even. I love seeing these gap toothed kids as they are, speeding through that precious time between babyhood and adolescence.

I sneak kisses to my children. If one of my boys comes near me in class, I sneak him a smooch. I just can't help it, it's a reflex. However, when I kissed one of my sons on the top of his head during a classroom field trip the other day, a boy laughed at us. Drat. I know I'll soon have to go undercover with my public displays of affection toward my kids.

I can read best guess spelling. Take Andaman. A little girl wrote that Andaman is her favorite TV show. I'd never heard of a show called Andaman. Hmm, andaman...andaman... - I've got it! - video On Demand!

I take in tidbits of their lives. I know who has a crush on whom. I know who just went to Disneyland. I got my heartstrings tugged when a child told me her mother is far away and not coming back. I know which boys would be doing advanced math and advanced well, everything, if ever a Star Wars themed school were to open.

Of course, my days are often fraught with not so fun moments, like when my own child won't listen, or when a leaky nosed boy sneezes in my face but this is February and in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'd like to shout out to all the wonderful moms who volunteer to work in the classroom.

What warms your heart and tickles your funny bone when you work in the classroom?
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Akemi Bourgeois is a Yahoo! Parenting Guru and mom to twin boys. They live in the Bay Area. She writes at Chalk and Cheese Chronicles and is the editor of Mad About Multiples. She is an editor of the newly launched Technorati Women.